Monday, November 23, 2009

Footprints on the Moon is a strange little oddity which at first plays out like a well crafted mystery movie with a dash of sci-fi, courtesy of a sub plot where the main character, Alice, keeps having strange dreams of an astronaut being left on the moon. Who are the astronauts and who is Alice are the main questions you will ask yourself while enjoying Luigi Bazzoni’s surreal “lost” movie Footprints on the Moon.

Florinda Bolkan [star of Lucio Fulci’s magnificent Lizard in a Woman’s Skin 1971, Don’t Torture a Duckling 1972, and the nunsploitation classic Flavia the Heretic 1974] pouts and sulks her way through the movie as she tries to understand how she has lost three days of her life. At start Footprints holds a fascinating plot that takes on grand proportions, but is somewhat fumbled at the finale. Alice is a translator and when she gets to work one day in the early stages of the movie, her bosses tell her that she’s been replaced because she’s been missing for several days. Alice can’t for the life of her understand and is completely confused by the claims that she’s been missing. It’s almost Giallo territory as she starts her inquiries to her whereabouts during those three days. After finding a torn up postcard on her kitchen floor, and having a good old chat with her friend Mary [Ida Galli, aka Evelyn Stewart from Mario Bava’sThe Whip and the Body 1963, Duccio Tessari’sThe Bloodstained Butterfly 1971 and Lucio Fulci’sThe Psychic 1977] her search takes her to the mysterious and abandoned resort referred to as Garma.

At Garma, Alice encounters the gallery of odd characters that will be leading her along on her quest, but almost everyone of them give the impression of recognising her, even though she has never seen them before… or has she? At first Alice cannot understand how the people at Garma talk to her with familiarity, until she meets the sinister little girl Paola…

Alongside with Bolkan is one of the most recognisable child actors of Italian genre movies from the seventies/eighties - the wonderful Nicoletta Elmi. Anyone who’s seen a handful of the classic Italian genre pieces will recognise her on sight, her burning red hair, her freckled face and those deep deep blue eyes make her appearance a memorable one to say the least. Elmi featured in her first film when she was four years old and already two years later 1971, she was in Luchino Visconti’sDeath in Venice (although uncredited you can’t miss her appearance). The same year she made her entrance in the genre that she’ll forever be associated with, the Italian horror flick. Again uncredited, Elmi plays an important part in Mario Bava’sTwitch of the Death Nerve 1971, in 1972 she’s George Lazenby and Anita Strindberg’s murdered daughter in Aldo Lado’s splendid Who Saw Her Die?, and from there on you can see her in such epics as Flesh for Frankenstein 1973 (Directed by Paul Morrissey or Antonio Margheritti depending on who’s story of the production you want to believe) Dario Argento’s landmark Giallo Profondo Rosso 1975, and Massimo Dallamano’sThe Cursed Medallion also from 1975 where Nicoletta gives her best performance as a possessed evil child. A year later Elmi vanished off the screen for several years but when she made her “comeback” it was with Lamberto Bava’s highly entertaining monster/possession classic Demons 1985. Gone were the childlike features so often associated with her previous characters and instead was a beautiful woman with red burning hair, freckled face and deep deep blue eyes. After two TV movies in the back half of the 80’s Elmi gave up acting and completed her studies and became a doctor instead. It’s an amusing though of arriving at the hospital and your doctor turns up and it’s Nicoletta Elmi who you have seen as the sinister child (and as an adult in Demons), it would definitely spook me if it ever happened.

Anyway, back to Footprints. Alice goes about her quest - where did those days go, who is the Nicola character that so many people at Garma keep referring to her as, what is the meaning of the yellow dress and the red wig, and what are those strange dreams all about. As the intrigue tightens, more questions are posed. And the key seems to be held by the mysterious Henry [Peter McEnry]. Henry who at first keeps safe distance to Alice, not revealing that they have know each other for many many years (yet another sub-plot of confusion) eventually comes out of his shell and explains that he and Alice where childhood lovers many years ago and he’s held his distance as not to scare or confuse Alice.

Then there’s the top billed name on most of the marketing materials for this little gem, Klaus Kinski. Now I’d be quite disappointed if I where a Kinski completist searching out Kinski movies and stumble upon Footprints, because of that false marketing with Kinski at the top billing. Kinski as Blackman, the strange leader of the scientific experiment on the moon, is just in the movie for a few minutes and only in flashback sequences, so I don’t really feel that he brings anything to the movie, more than his presence. So don’t expect to see good old Klaus freak out and act sinister as he did in so many other great Italian genre pieces as his part in Footprints is almost on a cameo level. Which is a shame, with some more freaky Kinski in here and perhaps bringing his character into the real world I’m sure that Footprints wouldn’t have stayed lost for so long.

The movie comes to a climax and all of Alice paranoia, confusion and mental illness drive her to devastating conclusions which have her taking terrible and fatal actions against the characters Alice see as her antagonists. It’s a dark ending with a simple, but haunting reveal in the last moments to show what is reality and what is not before Bazzoni takes it to the limit with a very surreal and bizarre final sequence. It’s also here that I feel the ending leaves more to demand s the climax isn’t satisfactory – even though it is very eerie and fitting for the flick – but the easy way out with an explanatory text as the movie comes to an end annoys me. Just imagine how that fascinating insanity thread could have been used so much more. Think of a last reel with Alice in the psychiatric ward after she’s confronted the spacemen, Blackman, now that would have been terrifying exploration of mental illness. What clarity would she reach? What would happen when she realizes her mistakes and what she has done in her state of mental disorder? It would have made for a great ending, and a more effective way of showing Alice time in the institution.

A quick afterthought on the movie and I ’d say that the movie is almost a inverted Fight Club 1999, where Alice sickness breaks her down and leaves her a wreck where Jack [Edward Norton] uses his insanity to develop and emerge a stronger person with insight into his temporary madness. Obviously Bazzari and co-screen writer Mario Fanelli (who supposedly co-directed Footprints and also co-wrote the 1971 Giallo The Fifth Cord with Bazzoni) are after some sort of pseudo psychoanalytical thread here but it unfortunately never really reaches the screen, apart from in several small nods during the movie. Alice employers who accuse her of being “ill” when she can’t recall being missing from work for three days; the Alice charm that she wears is, as told to Alice by the old woman [Lila Kedrova] made by a local craftsman who died several years ago (although as Alice obviously has spent some of her childhood here – she realises later – she may have received it then); after Harry has called his friend the doctor (whom Alice in her state thinks is the Blackman character and thinks that Harry is in on the big conspiracy) and the final text somewhat daft text explaining what the heck has been going on. It’s not really there and it leaves me wanting something more satisfying, even though I finally have clarity on what has happened during the movie. Looking at the overall structure Footprints is all about ambiguity, the lack of insight and uncertainty as each encounter pushes the mystery deeper and awakens more questions, there are no half mark answers here, it’s all one big mystery up till the final reel.

The score by Nicola Piovani is fragile, gentle and haunting when necessary and it’s a great complement to Vittori Storano’s splendid cinematography. Yeah that’s Vittorio Storano, the cinematographer of Dario Argento’s debut feature The Bird With the Crystal Plumage 1970, Guiseppe Patroni Griffi’s sleazy‘Tis Pitty She’s a Whore 1971, and Bazzoni’s previous Giallo The Fifth Cord 1971. The same Storano who also won Academy Awards for his work on Francis Ford Coppola‘sApocalypse Now 1979, Warren Beatty’sReds 1981 and Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor 1987 – who said that exploitation cinema leads to nothing?

Their combo of sensory elements really makes the strange atmosphere that ponders the movie. Now on a side note there is an strange but amusing little story about Nicola Piovani that is fitting to tell in the context of Footprints and not knowing who is who… There was and sometimes is an enduring rumour that has been spinning for many years that Piovani is a pseudonym name of Ennio Morricone. Now with the 140 and still counting titles that Piovani has composed (for the likes of Federico Fellini, The Taviani Brothers’, Nanni Moretti, Gianfranco Mingozzi, Marco Bellocchio, and Bigas Lunas), the award winning scores for among others Fellini’sGinger and Fred 1986, Moretti’sCaro diario 1993 and The Son’s Room 2001, and definitely the 1999 Academy Award for best Dramatic Score for Roberto Benigni’sLife is Beautiful, I’d think it pretty convincing that Ennio Morricone would have come and said that he is Piovani if this was the case. It’s a strange and sad little story, but Piovani is a good sport and tells it with joy and a twinkle in his eye during the lectures and talks he sometimes gives around the world.

Footprints on the Moon is a difficult movie to slot it into any definitive category as it would be out of place in the Giallo niche as it lacks the traditional traits that define that genre, i.e. red herring plots, nudity, sexy soundtracks and gloved killer. (I use the word Gialli niche as Shameless released Footprints as the last title in their 20 title series that also features several other Gialli) I wouldn’t place it in the Science Fiction genre either as there really isn’t any science fiction in it, apart from the cover artwork and flashbacks which actually are re-imaging’s of Alice’s memories of a movie she saw as a child, hence the Footprints on the Moon title. And it is definitely not a horror film, as there is no value of life at stake. One killing doesn’t make a horror flick, but I’d say that Footprints n the Moon fits nicely into the psychological drama niche with a healthy dose of thriller plot, which is why I used the Fight Club reference earlier. It’s a drama about a woman trying to answer what happened during her three day black out which leads the viewer to understand that her mental health is in question, and an amateur diagnosis comes up with the suggestion of Schizophrenia. This drama is driven by a quest/puzzle that the lead protagonist is trying to solve. In other words a psychological drama with thriller traits.

So if you are up for some superb camera work, delicate soundtracks, confused narratives and a great portrayal of a seriously bewildered woman by Florinda Bolkan with the added value of an ominous chid as played by the one and only Nicoletta Elmi and a sprinkle of Klaus Kinski then Luigi Bazzoni’sFootprints on the Moon is something that you may want to check out.

Image:

Remastered to 16x9 anamorphic widescreen. Although there are a number of varied source materials, the print looks grand.

Audio:

Dolby Digital 2.0 English or Italian dialogue available, with optional English subtitles.

Extras:

The Theatrical Trailer, English credit sequence, a promotional gallery and the US video teaser for the film under the moniker Primal Rage and the marketing scam that the film features Klaus Kinski… Being the last of the 20 titles released by Shameless, they have generously added trailers for the entire back catalogue that makes for quite an entertaining session if you are up for trailer shows. But be warned, there’s a lot of spoilers in those trailers especially the Footprints trailer.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

I wanted to avoid posting on TV Serials that I have been watching over the past thirty odd years, as there are way to many (but still they are fantastic one hour studies of storytelling and the magic of small screen narrative) but the TV show Dead Set has to go up here. It’s unlike anything that I have seen before, well sort of, as it reminds me of the classic Day of the Triffids directed by Ken Hannam in 1981 or Martin Campbell's haunting Edge of Darkness from 1986 with the great Bob Peck in the lead, where each episode had me gasping in fear as the apocalypse was apparently looming just around the corner. As an adult I’ve spent many a hour in front of the tube watching great TV serials, but not too many have drawn me in like Dead Set did.

Dead Set drew me in with a vengeance and it makes for great entertainment. As I work with TV production myself, I’ve been in those reality show backrooms that are so wonderfully displayed during the first episode (and featured throughout the show), and they have got it down to speck. I't as realistic as it could ever be. The obnoxious producer barking orders, the crew staffer reading the paper instead of doing his job, the camera crews who sluggishly pull on through as long as you feed them coffee and snacks, and the assistant that does what they are told to with out openly objecting. Just like Kelly [Jamie Winstone] in the show. There’s a wonderful eye for detail going on here as the women are dressed in different ways the higher up the hierarchy they are. Kelly the runner is all t-shirt, jeans and sneakers, the producer’s assistant is dressed in a more fashionable, trendy way and the blokes, well they look just like all blokes in TV produciton do. Ironic t-shirts, baggy pants, unshaven and with a self-image of being hipper than they are. (It takes one to know one right!) . The producer is the tyrant of the operation; he thinks the world revolves round him and his show, and objects loudly when the global catastrophe threatens his show from going on the air, after all His production is the centre of the universe. However unreal this scene may seem to you, it is a very real scenario. I’ve been there, I’ve heard those discussions, I'v seen producers huff at external realism and complain that "that had to happen today when we go on air didn't it!". And it was just as surreal as it is portrayed on Dead Set. After 9/11 we had the discussion whether to air or not air a pig getting slaughtered for food on the reality farm show that I was working with back then. Needless to say the discussion was bizarre and unreal in the context that some three thousand people just died in the largest terrorist attack on the US since Pearl Harbour. But our little show had to go on, it still had to be the centre of attention… a strange situation indeed. Like said, it does happen. And just for the record, I have enough self insight to acknowledge that I’ve been quite a bastard myself when I used to produce reality for TV, so in some ways I can empathise with Patrick the bastard producer [Andy Nyman] after all, and the opening episode of Dead Set is a great presentation of a world that I know ever so well, which definitely helps sell the illusion to me when the shit hit’s the fan - although I never dissected a reality show cast member or rammed a rod through the head of the host.

Created and written by Charlie Brooker, Dead Set was broadcast on UK television for five consecutive nights (yeah, five like the number of shows, no waiting the whole week with this one…) on Channel 4’s pay-TV site E4 and was such a success that the show was later rerun in three one hour instalments on Channel 4 in early 2009. A few weeks ago, during Halloween the show was shown in a marathon screening where all five episodes aired back to back. Director Yann Demange has only been directing TV for a few years, but has several hip and successful serials to his record proving that this is a guy who knows what he is doing. It’s also from these hip and modern serials that the majority of the cast have been taken.

The tension takes a grip after the initial set up of main characters and shifts into horror territory quite fast. Each episode weaves its own impressive narrative forward with several arches being started and ended in each show, with nothing being left to chance or wanting more explanation. You won’t find yourself asking, “What about those fucking polar bears mate?” in this show. The first episode is almost a school book example of how you present you archetypes in the most effective way; the final episode is quite unpredictable and has been built-up to with major skill. Episode four with the boat ride on the river is among one of the most intense I’ve seen on a TV show, it’s really powerful stuff that will keep you on the edge of your seat as you never know what is lurking round the next bend.

Dead Set has several things going for it that makes it such an entertaining little horror fest. The characters are well written, Patrick the horrendous producer is obviously a polarization of what people think producers are like, and believe me some are very much like the character Andy Nyman plays to perfection. Floating on a cloud of make believe with an arrogant tone against all mortals who don’t work in TV.Sinister but true. Obviously his character is exaggerated which makes up for a great persona that you will love to hate. Even as he stares death in the greyish eye, he has a full arsenal of snide, degrading remarks towards everything and everyone.

Jamie Winstone [who you may have seen in the disturbing Donkey Punch 2008 and also the daughter of the Ray Winstone] Kelly is adorable, and definitely the person who carries this series on her shoulders. She’s set up from the start as an optimistic and ambitious. She doesn’t question her many small tasks, go for coffees, get the producer’s nicorettes, running errands, She does her job, she’s polite and is ambitious. You can’t not like that. I like her even more as I know how important those seemingly small and unimportant tasks are on a shoot. The runners are incredibly important as they are the ones that keep everyone else happy and on their feet during production. Without them things would certainly come to a grinding halt pretty fast. So this adds to her value in my eyes.

During the coarse of the narrative she develops, her character grows, and the backbone of her ambition comes to full power, as she becomes the fighting force of the show. Then there’s the personal and more complex side of her that lures us into liking her. She’s just spent a night of carnal joy with one of the other staffers, which makes us like her as we are always suckers for a love story, but then her relationship with Riq [Riz Ahmed] is exposed and her guilt towards him after her little slip. It would be easy to frown upon Kelly here, but we don’t even though she’s been unfaithful to Riq we stay with her. This because she obviously regrets her little mistake, she does still love Riq and this is very apparent in her second encounter with the guys from the crew after Kelly has talked to Riq on the phone. She is almost rejects him and pets Riq's image on her mobile phone at each given opportunity. Kelly is having regrets, she's feeling guilt and this makes her an empathetic character that we can relate to. It set's her up for the big journey she has affront of her and we root for her as she takes on the task.

Remember the back bone of great characters (or participants in your reality programme if you like) is identification + empathy = engaging characters.

The Riq character is great. His fighting spirit is awesome, he fights for Kelly before the outbreak, he questions what happened between them, why the space, which indicates that he too still loves Kelly and wants’ things to be as they where before she started her new line of work. The interrupted phone call motivates him to go on a search after Kelly as he want' to finish the valuable discussion. Riq is obviously threatened by her new workspace, but puts all shallow emotions to one side when he realises that Kelly is still alive and sets out to save her. A line from the The Smiths song There is a Light that Never Goes Out comes to mind ”To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die…” which in some ways sums up Riq’s journey. He knows that the ordinary world is lost, there is nothing left out there but death, destruction and the zombies, so he seeks out the one thing he holds closest to his heart; Kelly.

The supporting cast is grand and many of them do have smaller arches during the series, all on larger and smaller levels. One brilliant detail is the common centrefold dolly bird Veronica played by Beth Cordongly. As soon as she realises that there’s nobody watching her on the telly, the skimpy provocative clothing goes back in her suitcase and she starts wearing normal clothes. It’s a great little detail that is in there, and the show is filled with these smaller but splendid little details that work like a charm.

You can never underestimate star value, and the choice of using the real host of Big Brother UK, Davina McColl (and other former BB cast members), as herself is brilliant. Davina brings a certain authenticity to the show that can’t be caught with an actor portraying someone in her shoes. This together with Pippa [Kathleen McDermott] being evicted during a real Big Brother eviction night and the vey realistic ”behind the scenes” opening really set the realism of the story firmly and solid. The craftsmanship sells me the illusion and I believe in the story.

Logic gaps, yeah there are few, not many, but a few, the biggest being the Big Brother live feed… I would think that if all mobile communication and TV broadcasts had gone off the air, even the emergency broadcasts, then I’d doubt that the BB live feed would still be online. But then again it does have a purpose and it gives Riq that motivation he needs for that suspenseful pursuit after Kelly.

Now you can’t have a zombie movie without gore drenched special effects. People need to be torn apart, head’s need to be shot open, entrails need to be yanked out of screaming bodies and you need to drown the screen in blood and guts. Dead Set showcases an highly impressive amount of high-end effects courtesy of Neal Champion and his crew who has worked on a multitude of UK TV shows and films and noteworthy worked on one of my all-time faves Richard Stanley’sHardware back in 1990. The effects are definitely top notch, and even surpass most of the classic eighties zombie stuff by far. It’s realistic, gory and very disturbing. This definitely adds to the charm of this fantastic series.

Yes, these zombies move fast, and I’m not even going to get in on the debate over slow vs. Fast zombies, because it’s not important. Sure in some ways the slow shuffling of the dead in the Romero universe is great, but the Zombies loose some of their threat when you can just walk past them at ease.There’s a great scene in Tom Savini’s remake of Night of the Living Dead 1990, where Barbara [Patricia Tallman] in a surprise twist to the original suits up and walks through the field easily shooting off the zombies one at a time which kind of proves my point. They just don’t really impend that much of a threat if you watch your step. Being a man of stern traditions, I want stuff to be what they are. Vampires avoid crosses and can’t stand garlic, Werewolves only turn at the new moon, and zombies are dead meat and can’t run. But if you bring your own twist to that, Vampires say they made up the Crosses and Garlic bit to fool us humans into believing they have a weakness, Werewolves can change at any given time due to special UV lamps, Zombies run because they like the thrill of the chase, then that’s fine with me. But keep in mind that all great antagonists need a really fragile Achilles heel. There has to be that on glimmer of chance that we can beat it. But fast zombies scare the heck out of me, because where my physical condition will allow me to run for a certain while, my body will eventually say stop, as lactic acid will become an obstacle. But a dead being that only wants to devour my flesh won’t, as its only impulses are EAT! So yeah they do scare me more than the common shuffler, but I feel that you have to use the right variety and twist on the monster that suits your project the best and if you use them right then who am I to complain.

Zombies and a world taken over by the dead is a very bleak prospect and leave a harrowing state of mind behind. Just imagine yourself in a world where you are being constantly targeted as something’s dinner, and the constant threat of one simple bite ending your life. It’s dark, sinister and nihilistic. If there’s one thing I dislike about zombie flicks it’s the happy go lucky endings that sometimes are pinned onto them. Sure it’s heart-warming to see Shaun and Ed reunited at the end of Edgar Wright’sShaun of the Dead 2004, the jet’s spotting Selena, Hannah and Jim’s HELP sign at the end of Danny Boyle’s masterful 28 Days Later 2002, still brings tears to my eyes and I still draw a sigh of relief at the end of Romero’sDawn of the Dead 1979 as the helicopter pulls away from the Monroeville Mall. But they still leave so much questions hanging in limbo with their partial endings. Even the ”everything’s going to be all right” endings of films like Night of the Living Dead 1968 and Day of the Dead 1985 are somewhat insufficient as nothing really has changed, the zombies, the virus, the threat is still out there. In many ways this is what makes Robert Kirkman’s zombie comic series The Walking Dead such an amazing piece of pop culture, as it goes on for ever, after each overcome obstacle there’s a new threat/problem presented, and just as you thought you could relax he has all hell break loose killing of characters that you never thought would die, characters who have been important to the storyline, characters you thought would be there till the very end. It’s harsh, unpredictable and haunting which makes it a required read for fans of the zombie genre.

So yeah, there is definitely a dark tone to zombie universe and perhaps it’s my pessimism and melancholic views on life that draw me to the genre, I don’t know, and after seeing the interviews with creator Brooker on the DVD, I feel that we have more than one trait in common. But the ending to Dead Set, without revealing or spoiling anything for you is very fitting. It makes sense and is so very effective only because of the character arches woven through out the narrative. There has been so much value at stake throughout the series that this ending works. And it will stay with you because you identified with the characters.

Dead Set proves once again that impressive, effect full and really good productions can be made on minimal budgets. You don’t need to have the full backing of a major studio, you can tell your story and make an impact with the most powerful tool that you have at hand - A great story.

Image: 1.78:1 - Anamorphic 16x9. If you have any knowledge of TV production, you will enjoy how the series starts up being shot on Digibeta and then gradually becomes more filmic as the D-20 kicks in. Watch Kelly during the first episode and see if you can spot where it goes from TV reality to movie magic.

Audio: English dialogue, Dolby Surround 2.0 and Dolby Digital 5.1, Subtitles in Englsh for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Extras:Loads of small but bite size extras are available, commentary tracks, featurettes, interviews and several deleted scenes. All in all there’s quite a lot of information on the way TV magic is made that is well worth checking out.

Sending out a plug for the fantastic constructinghorror.com site, make sure to keep an eye on that space as they are about to publish an documentation/interview with Dr Robert Smith? (yeah with a question mark) on the mathematical calculations for what would happen when the zombie plague arrives. Fascinating stuff that will send shivers down your spine.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Last week I discussed the heritage of Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta, and the phenomenon of El Santo, but don’t for a second think that Mexican genre cinema is all about Lucha Libre and masked heroes saving the day. Even though that specific niche may be the one most associated with Mexican sub-genres, there is still a goldmine of highly explosive movies come out of Mexico if you know where to search.

Juan López Moctezuma’sAlucarda is one of, if not the best, demonic possession, movie ever made. It’s creepy, disturbing, gory, loads of fun and holds extremely high production values that all add up to make it one of the most entertaining movies to come out of Mexico during the seventies.

I would be wrong to slot this film into the nunsploitation genre even if this would seem fitting: Yes there’s certainly a whole lot of nuns engaging in battle with the evil forces at bay. Also it takes place in an orphanage/church where daily prayers and religious artefacts fill every scene. But there’s none of the backroom sleaze activity from the nuns, which usually characterizes the nunsploitation genre. It’s not the nuns that are sinful, but the poesies young women. (If you feel that taking your kit off and lesbian desires are sinful that is) Instead this is a good old possession movie where the devil corrupts the minds of young innocent women in his quest for world domination, with a healthy dose of exploitation traits at play.

The mood, tone and atmosphere of this movie is firmly set from the very start of the film. A young mother [Tina Romero in a double role as she later plays the grown up Alucarda too] gives birth to a little girl who, after being named Alucarda, is quickly taken by a strange old woman leaving the mother to face the strange entity that obviously is lurking the strange crypt like place she has chosen to give birth in…

Many years later, Justine [Susana Kamini, who starred in all of Moctezuma’s movies but the last one.] arrives at an orphanage where Sister Angélica [Tina French] greets her and shows Justine her new home. Justine is introduced to her roommate Alucarda [Tina Romero again] who comes right out and makes an impression of being quite eccentric and intense as she shows Justine her collection of secrets that she’s found out in the woods surrounding the orphanage. In reality it’s all pieces of twigs, dead beetles’ and small pebbles, but it set’s a naïve character trait that will be necessary to build the Alucarda persona. We understand that our impression of this peculiar young girl is the same as the other girls in the orphanage and realise that Alucarda is a loner without friends, which is why she so early on attaches herself to Justine, the new girl, so instantly. The new girl is a clean slate and holds no prejudice towards Alucarda.

They two friends run out into the woods to find more secrets and meet a hunchbacked Gypsy [Claudio Brook who you may recall from Guillermo Del Toro’sCronos 1993, Robert Fuest’s satanic turkey The Devil’s Rain 1975 or one of the many Luis Buñuel movies he starred in. He also held the lead role in Moctezuma’sThe Mansion of Madness (La mansión de la locura) 1973, and just like Romero holds double roles in Alucarda, as you soon will see.] Anyhow, the gypsy hunchback tries to sell the girls more “Secrets”, but his secrets are much more sinister than simple woodland titbits, and after running away from the creepy hunchback they find themselves in the crypt, or abandoned chapel from the opening birth sequence. Filled with adolescent curiosity they initiate a blood rite promising to be BFF’s and open one of the graves that they find there (possibly Alucarda’s mothers?) and the demonic forces start to arise. The audio is exhilarating here as the feeling is almost as if the sound producer has grabbed a mike and started growling and snarling into it right on top of the soundtrack. At first it is quite annoying, but the longer it goes on for the more profoundly it disturbed me. This trick is used throughout the rest of the movie, acting as a haunting audio key to indicate that the satanic forces at work are even larger than the movies narrative.

From here on the movie definitely goes into psychotronic land, safely back at the orphanage the girls undress and engage in a blood pact to stay friends for ever and never to walk the earth with out each other, and guess who shows up to interfere and lure them further into the darkness, yes it’s the hunchback. Inducting them into the pleasures of Satanism and blood rituals the heavens open up and blood pours from the skies. The Hunchback takes the girls with him out to the gypsy camp where a full-fledged satanic ritual is in progress. Nothing is held back as the naked participants engage in a huge orgy as Justine and Alucarda watch on in anticipation until the horned one makes his impressive entrance welcoming the girls into his dark world. At the same time Sister Angelica prays for her ward Justine, call upon the saviour the hardest she can, crying blood, sweating blood, levitating and begging the lord for Justine’s salvation. And would you believe it, in some kind of synchronized dance/possession Sister Angelica and the gypsy high priestess fight it out ever so elegantly, leaving Sister Angelica a crying mess, but successful and the high priestess dead in a pool of blood. The entire sequence is further propelled in surrealism as the before mentioned growling and snarling right in the front of the audio is right there adding to the visual wildness on screen.

Back at school the girls taunt their nun teachers and recite long passages of biblical texts only to blaspheme them and evoke the name of Beelzebub. The nuns are terrified and call in Mother Superior [Birgitta Segerskog obviously a Swede who I cant’ find anything more info on] who after talks with Father Lázaro [David Silva who also starred in several Moctezuma and Alejandro Jodorowsky movies] decides that the two girls need to be exorcised and bring all his religious gusto to the exorcism session where the girls are tied up to crosses and Justine stripped bare. I never quite understand why the church always have to tear the clothes of the poor lasses to go though exorcism, but still that’s what they always do and it creates a creepy feeling of hypocrisy as the nuns are all wrapped up in their habits and the poor young, fresh girls are exposed. Finally the monks get to see some skin. But you need that nudity in there or it wouldn’t be called exploitation cinema would it.

The local doctor, Dr. Oszek [Brook in his second part] arrives just in time to witness Justine die at the hands of the Father Lázaro, or is it the evil forces that take her life as they have other plans for Justine… He damns Father Lázaro and the church for this outrageous act, but Father Lázaro defends himself by claiming that the girls are possessed by the devil and need to be set free, hence drastic action is demanded. Dr. Oszek takes Alucarda and his blind daughter out of the school and back to the safety of his own home. But have no fear for the movie is defiantly not over yet... As Sister Angelica prays by Justine’s body it starts to twitch, and the movie cranks it up to a higher level as it begins the build towards the coming fifteen minutes of climax that makes this one of the most amazing movies of cult cinema. Demons are fought, Justine bathes in blood, Nuns have their throats torn out, Fireballs are thrown, Monks are engulfed in flames, crucifixes burn, Alucarda brings hell to the ordinary world in an inferno of damnation. It’s good vs. evil in a battle older than mankind, and it is stuff that will blow your mind.

Upon watching Alucarda one could easily feel that this movie, in many ways like the Italian nunsploitation flicks, is anti clerical and a protest against the church, therefore choosing exposing their sinister sides and dark secrets, but I feel that the movie actually is more pro than against. For even though the clergy do kill Justine (in some ways she’s all ready lost due to the possession) Father Làzaro is right. The girls are possessed by the devil, and even the goody two shoes Dr. Oszek joins the church in the fight against the demons once his daughter is threatened. It’s splendid to see how easily lead on we are as an audience, and just how easy we are to manipulate. As Moctezuma has built the characters of Justine and Alucarda as young, naïve and innocent, we obviously take sides with them during the movie, hence directing us to root for the antagonists if you like. Yes antagonists. Justine and Alucarda are the evil forces of the movie, and the church; Sister Angelica, Father Lázaro and Dr. Oszek are the protagonists. It’s a wonderful trick when it works and Moctezuma pulls it off with bravura, as we don’t want the girls to be punished and want them to come out victorious against the forces of the church.

Finding his inspiration in Irish author Sheridan Le Fanu’sCarmilla text, Moctezuma and his co writers, among them his wife Yolanda, come up with a splendid story. It’s safe to say that Moctezuma makes the source material his own and uses the source material as an inspiration not a template. Although the gothic setting is preserved, the vampire element of Carmilla is abandoned; keeping the core - yearning for companionship and the extent you will go to for this camaraderie. Not to forget the controversial, well at least in 1872 when Fanu wrote it, homoeroticism especially the lesbian girl on girl elements. Exploring daring themes and using them in your text isn’t simply a ploy of seventies - eighties exploitation cinema; it’s been used since mankind started putting words on paper, and for some unexplained reason it provokes e heck out of certain people. Also Justine's name is a reference to De Sade’sJustine text, where the themes of good and evil, opposing oneself against accepted tradition, the corruption of the church and a young woman's coming of age are key elements.

Alucarda is a fascinating movie, the acting is splendid, the story is highly entertaining, Xavier Cruz's cinematography is marvellous, the compositions are stunning and at some times it’s almost like watching a theatrical presentation of the material. The movie is disturbing in many ways, one of the most effective is reminiscent of Tobe Hooper’s 1974 classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and that’s the deafening audio track, screaming girls and growling demons make up a truly disturbing soundtrack. It’s a bold and innovative gamble that the sound crew and editors have taken, but in it’s own strange way it works in favour of the movie. Romero and Kamini scream as if their lives really where on the line, and the demonic growling placed up front make it impossible to escape the threat presented.

I’d say that the movie feels theatrical because of Moctezuma’s background in the theatre and radio. After working with radio, creating Panoama de Jazz in 1959, a show which aired for almost 35 years, Moctezuma set his eyes on the area that had always inspired and enticed him, Cinema. His road there went via several TV shows, a number of short movies and his assistant work with theatre legend Seki Sano.

Seki Sano was an exiled Japanese director and writer of theatre who spent time in prison after being accused of spreading socialist ideas through his work. Sano spent some years in the then USSR where he associated and worked with the likes of Stanislavski and Meyerhold, before moving on to America. But even there his “radical and socialist” ideas where criticized and he ventured further south ending up in Mexico during 1939. Here he would become somewhat of a key figure for the next generation of belligerent players on the Mexican scene. It is probably during his time as an assistant to Sano that Moctezuma picked up his method of writing, acting, directing and the theatrical grandeur that comes with his movies. It's also during this time that he befriended the Chilean multiartist and creative shaman Alejandro Jodorowsky.

Teaming up with his new friend Jodorowsky, Moctezuma worked with him on Fando y lis 1967 and the midnight classic El Topo 1970, for which he both received producer credits on. It was only a question of time before Moctezuma himself would direct his own full length features, and in 1973 Moctezuma wrote and directed The Mansion of Madness loosely based on Edgar Allen Poe’sThe System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether. Just like Jodorowsky, Moctezuma regarded his art passionately and held it close to himself on a personal level which had him refuse compromising with his principles and, again just like Jodorowsky, he was quite rigid, which is one of the reasons why he only directed a few movies during his career. It’s all about quality and not quantity for visual directors of Mocetezuma's stature.

But those five movies still hold up today as the surreal art house horror crossovers that they where intended to be. Themes, style and elements of the fantastic played for real in some of the most fascinating movies you will ever see.

Image:

Full screen 4:3, which presumably is the OAR.

Audio:

Dolby Digital Stereo with English or Spanish dialogue options.

Extras:

Juan Lopez Moctezuma – A Cultured Maverick: A short documentary on the director and his movies, Theatrical Trailer, a gallery of stills and photos. Interview with Guillermo del Toro on the legacy of Moctezuma. There’s also a text interview with Moctezuma and cast and crew biographies.